Police clear out Oakland camp, arrest dozens

Wednesday

Oct 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMOct 26, 2011 at 11:40 AM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Police in riot gear cleared anti-Wall Street protesters yesterday from the front of Oakland’s City Hall, where they had been camping for two weeks, leaving a sea of overturned tents, signs and trash strewn across the plaza.

Authorities arrested 75 people, mostly on suspicion of misdemeanor illegal lodging, and hundreds of officers and sheriff’s deputies from more than a dozen agencies went into the encampment with tear gas and beanbag rounds around 5 a.m., police said.

About 170 protesters were at the site, but no one was injured, according to police.

“I’m very pleased with how things went,” Interim Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said after the raid.

Television news footage showed protesters being taken away in plastic handcuffs without incident, though some protesters complained of rough handling by police.

Officers fired tear gas and bean bags when one group of protesters pelted them with rocks and bottles near the camp’s kitchen area, Jordan said.

“It was definitely chaos. People didn’t want to get gassed,” said protester Anthony Owens, 40, a computer programmer from Oakland who was at the scene when police moved in but was not arrested.

The Oakland site was among numerous camps that have sprung up around the country as protesters rally against what they call corporate greed and a range of other economic issues. The protests have attracted a wide range of people, including college students looking for work and the homeless population.